A journal of my adventures through each game as I attempt to complete the Pokédex.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

LeafGreen Update 7/10 and Pokemon Box: Ruby & Sapphire

My Kanto Dex is complete!

I've spent the last week evolving Pokémon, hatching eggs, trading between games, and battling the Elite Four. I still have a few Pokémon to obtain to physically have all 150 in both games (Green hasn't captured Mewtwo yet and she needs another Blastoise and Raichu to put in the box, Red needs Charmeleon and Charizard for his box), but between the two games the Kanto Dex is complete: 151/151

I beat the elite four with my team of Blastoise, Raichu, Sandslash, Ninetales, Alakazam and Pidgeot the first time through. Afterward, I traded Sandslash and Pidgeot for pokemon that needed experience to level up and gave them the Exp. Share. I did some of the grinding in Cerulean Cave too.

On Pokemon Box, I still had 2 Mew from a trade event that took place at Toys 'R' Us years ago. One of them is holding a yellow scarf and has won all four ranks in the smart contests in Emerald, I think.

I also spent some time yesterday and today tracking down as many of the Johto Pokémon as I could find. Except for the legendary Pokémon, I think I have at least the first stage of every Pokémon evolution line from the Johto Dex. I had to track down the Colosseum exclusive Pokémon in my collection on Pokémon Box since I currently dont have my copy of Colosseum, and hatched some eggs from them, and I had to take a trip to the Safari Zone in Emerald. I might come back and finish as much of the Johto Dex as I can, but I am ready to move on to Pokémon Diamond or Pearl. I'll have plenty of time with the Johto Pokémon when I get to SoulSilver.

Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire

For anyone who doesn't know what I am talking about whenever I mention "Pokémon Box", here is a quick rundown. Pokémon Box is a game for GameCube that is basically a storage system for large collections of Pokémon. Instead of storing them on a game cartridge, they are stored in a GameCube memory card (which Pokemon Box comes with, along with a GC/GBA link cable =D).

The story behind it is that Brigette, Lannette's older sister, has taken Lannette's system and made it much, much bigger. In the GBA games, Bill's PC or Lannette's PC (depending on the region) provides you with 14 boxes to store Pokémon in and each box can hold 30 Pokémon. That means you can store a total of 420 Pokémon; enough space for a complete Pokédex with a box left over for anything extra (or a complete collection of Unown). In Pokémon Box, you get 25 boxes and each one holds 60, for a total of 1500 Pokémon! Brigette even rewards you for using her system by giving you Pokémon eggs every time you store a certain amount.

When you select Arrange Boxes, you are taken to a screen that shows your GBA boxes on the bottom and the GC boxes on top. Just like in the games, you can organize your Pokémon, customize the box wallpaper, change the box names, and view statistics on each of the Pokémon. You can move one or multiple Pokémon at a time, so it makes it very easy to transfer lots of Pokémon from one game to another in a very short amount of time. This is how I used to complete my Pokédex every time I began a new game.

I have been wishing for a new version of Pokémon Box since Diamond and Pearl were released, and we still haven't gotten one. It would be nice if they would make a new one for the 3DS that lets you transfer Pokémon between your DS/3DS games and your SD card. I've given up hope on future Console/Handheld connectivity. We haven't seen it since the GameCube and Gameboy Advance. Otherwise a version of Pokémon Box for the Wii U would be really cool.